(The Blue Room floor circa 1999/2000 - Photo by Sir Ackronomicon)
This is the Sixth Book of Pope Goat VII. Where's Number 5? We never mixed it down.
This was the first book we recorded after we moved out of my mom's house and into our own apartment. We immediately transformed our hallway, which was actually pretty spacious for a hallway, into a permanent recording studio, the Blue Room, for us to use at our leisure. This was really the most thriving creative period His Holiness the Pope Goat gave us, and we recorded something like 45 of our 50 Books here.
All tracks were now one take, no overdubs, completely improvised either off a riff one of us started, or by just hitting record and seeing what happened. This is really one of our finest moments, as the excitement and energy of our new living situation and my new-found freedom really shines through.
About the psalms:
(note: psalms that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. All Ye Who Enter Here - Our first recording in our new apartment and in the Blue Room conjuring the powers of His Holiness, the Pope Goat.
02. Tropical Frog - We had some shitty cereal with stale marshmallows in it, like Lucky Charms or something, and it was advertising the new "tropical frog" marshmallow, so in true Pope Goat fashion, we did a song about it.
03. Tropical Toad - We didn't feel done with the "Tropical Frog" thing when the tape ran out, so we recorded a "sequel," as directed by the Pope Goat.
04. Do the Pope Goat - Pope Goat disco. Pretty self-explanatory.
05. Shit - Everybody does it.
06. Christian Disco - The only channel we got on our TV (since we refused to pay for cable) was TBN, the Born Again Christian channel, which became a huge inspiration to our music. I believe this is the first TBN reference in the Pope Goat cannon.
07. White Trash Rap - Here, we were joined by Sir Ackronomicon's brother, Sir P of Pimping Hos, on vocals, and Sir Minister Barry the Conquistador on keyboards. Sir Ackronomicon is on bass and I'm playing trumpet and screaming in the background.
08. You Silly Bitch - Yup.
09. Black Sunday - We were hungover on a Sunday morning, and we said, "Black Sunday" - a reference to the great Mario Bava movie - in our Pope Goat voices and realized were were being summoned by His Holiness Pope Goat VII to record, which we did.
10. Leaky Ceiling - One morning it rained and I woke up with a deluge of water dripping through my ceiling all over my room, like it was raining inside.
11. Metal Plate - Basically, when we were moving into our apartment, Sir Ackronomicon had leaned a metal plate from something his dad had welded against the railing outside our door, and when we were moving his mattress in, we knocked the plate, which slid under the railing and sailed down into the courtyard of the apartment complex. We heard somebody yell, "What the fuck was that?" We didn't think anything of it until he kept yelling. We looked at each other and knew something was wrong. We ran downstairs and saw some guy on his knees holding his head. Sir Ackronomicon pulled the guy's baseball cap off his head and blood poured down his face. I ran back upstairs and called 911. Luckily, the guy didn't sue, but Sir Ackronomicon was stuck paying the guy's medical bills for a while.
12. Toilet - It was one of those typical shitty cheap apartment toilets that ran for no reason or got stuck after you flushed and you had to jiggle the handle.
Pope Goat VIIBook of New Surroundings CDR
(MPAE/Hummer Productions)
1999
note: the .zip file includes booklet and tray-card inserts so you can make your own PG7 CD!
One of the hats I wear is as music critic for The Big Takeover, in both print and online versions. I used my Top Ten list of favorite recent reviews to assemble a DJ set, which morphs from punk to metal to noise to mutant blues.
Sometime around the summer of 2007, a friend asked me and a few other people to join him in DJing a night at Molly Blooms II in Amityville, NY. We'd each get an hour to play whatever we wanted and, if things went well, we'd be able to do it again. Unfortunately, at the last second (like the day before) the people at Molly Blooms canceled and nothing ever came of it. I always wondered what that set-list I'd had in my head would have sounded like and, after looking over my notes, I finally assembled an approximation of what I would have played that night. My intention was to show my interpretation of dance music, beyond the confines of what it is commonly perceived to be. Being the first real DJ mix I've ever assembled, it's not perfect, but I think it's a lot of fun and, hopefully, it gets my philosophy across in an entertaining manner.
Damn! I can't believe I haven't updated in over a month! Well, time to get back on track. I've been in a punk rock mood, so here's more of "the best trashy punk band in NYC," to quote myself again.
World War IX
01. The Life
A quick one to get back on track. 
Violent Fit
Here's another one that I'm extremely excited to be posting.
Most of these songs have been rerecorded and released on other 400 Blows albums, but this is how I remember the band sounding - a raw, in-your-face attack by an overgrown three-year-old who tauntingly chants "na na-na na na" as he beats your face into the edge of the concrete curb. For that, this is absolutely my favorite album by them. I suggest turning it up as loud as your ears can take, then a few more clicks and dancing like a heathen to the primitive groove.
The images and music were uploaded with the full consent of Anthony Francoso, owner of Total Annihilation Records. Thank you, Anthony!
400 Blows
(Photo by Sir Ackronomicon)
About the psalms:
Pope Goat VII
Here's a band John, from ULTRABASTARD!, was in over 10 years ago. From what I remember, the band had another name and a proper singer until John was looking at their website one day and he saw something saying that the singer, Pete, had quit to start another band. Apparently, Pete forgot to tell his bandmates. John was playing bass, so out of necessity, he became the vocalist and they changed their name to Pete-less.
Sonically, I think the band is more "grunge" than anything - not like Pearl Jam mind you - but that style of metalized punk that really doesn't have any other name. Between Barbara's heavy guitar chops, Joe's powerful drumming and John's shouted vocals, it has a very late '80s/early '90s Northwestern US sound.
Some words from John:
Pete-less
If you've been reading this blog from the beginning and/or you know me personally, then you know how highly I think of Libyan Hit Squad. Not only are they an incredible band, but they're great people as well. I'm proud to have shared the stage with them on the too few occasions that it happened.
They're a great group of guys with great songs and they're one of the five bands around today that I actually give a shit about (others include Six Finger Satellite, The Jack Saints and The Secret Machines). I really can't wait to hear where they go after this cuz I know it will be good.The images and music were uploaded with Craig Englund's full consent. Thank you, Craig! Extra special thanks for the LP art scans and MP3s!
Libyan Hit Squad
The Repercussions were one of those incestuous garage bands whose members had been in several bands before this one and most of the members had been in those bands together. They played some damn fine rock'n'roll though, and they honored me when they asked me to write the liner notes to their debut full-length. Here's what I wrote (click the image to make it larger):
Unfortunately, whoever transcribed what I wrote left out a line of text, making one section not make too much sense, but whatever, you get the point.
Perhaps it was for the best, though, as they broke up shortly after this was released. Now they're in different bands with each other.
The Repercussions
(The Blue Room floor circa 1999/2000 - Photo by Sir Ackronomicon)
About the psalms:
Pope Goat VII
Haven't been feeling very motivated lately, so here's a quick one for the week.
World War IX
01. Intervention
For the beginning of the new year (and a new decade, according to some on NPR), I bring you the origins of one of the most important bands to my musical upbringing.
The Two Felipes
(Live at Big Al Doogie's birthday party August 2006)
(Live at Joe's going away party October 2009)
ULTRABASTARD!
To make a long story short, I met Dan through a total toolbag who went by the name of Atom (when he called, he'd say, "Hey, it's A-T-O-M!") and we all played together in a short-lived band called A Funeral in the Fall. Dan and I eventually got sick of said toolbag and quit, but that's another story.
We played a total of 12 shows from May 2004 to July 2005, when Joe, the singer, quit and we gave up. It was fun while it lasted.
Optimus Prime
(Mr Phreek circa early 2001 - Photo by Ackronomicon)
(Mr Phreek circa early 2001 - Photo by Ackronomicon)
FPOS
